


The Huddle

by castaliareed



Series: Songs of the Starklings [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Aemon the Dragonknight - Freeform, Baby Starks - Freeform, F/M, Florian the Fool, Implied Jon Snow/Sansa Stark, Jonquil, Starklings, Winterfell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 06:01:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10633740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castaliareed/pseuds/castaliareed
Summary: Stuck inside for the afternoon, the Stark children decide to hunt monsters and save the realm.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was so fun to write! I love my Starklings. I wish these four could be together all the time.

_Inspired by the[Stark Family Huddle](https://castaliareed.tumblr.com/post/157679700660/stark-family-huddle), a piece written for tumblr featuring our favorite Starks as adults. This is an interpretation of that piece with the Starks as children. _

All four children glared at each other. Each one furious with the other. Arya knew that Sansa was trying to hide her anger by pointing her nose in the air pretending she was too well bred to be punished with the rest. This made Arya even madder. So mad she poked her wooden sword into the floor hard enough that it broke. Baby Bran was distraught his eyes red from crying big baby tears. Jon well Jon looked more resigned to their fate despite the steely glances he shot at his sisters. 

Six-year-old Arya was not even sure how it all happened. She was supposed to watch Bran, Sansa supposed to watch her, and Jon keeping an eye on all of them. 

Their Lord Father was away visiting the Stark's bannermen and had taken only Robb, their oldest brother with him. This was no doubt the reason for Jon's bad mood. He hated being left behind. Arya was never sure if it was because he was just a few months younger than Robb or if it was because he was truly only their half-brother. _Had their father not taken Jon because he was a bastard?_

Septa Mordane had been unwell and their Lady Mother had gone into Winter Town to see to several needy families. This left Old Nan to look after the children for the afternoon. All the children loved Nan and her stories. Usually, an afternoon under her watchful eye was a cause to rejoice. This afternoon was different. Maybe it was Jon's bad mood, or Sansa haughtiness, or Bran's crying. Maybe it was Arya's fault for being reckless. Maybe it was the heavy rain that had begun to pour down outside.

The rain meant the children were confined inside. They found themselves in the ante-room of the large nursery that Arya still shared with Bran hoping to hear a story from Old Nan or maybe just to pass the time. 

Old Nan had only left for a few moments telling the children she would be right back promising a story. By the time she returned, all three were yelling at each other and Bran was in tears. A mirror was broken in pieces of shattered glass on the floor. 

Arya had goaded Jon into practicing their swordplay with short wooden swords she found hidden in the room as soon as Nan left. Sansa sat in the corner with Bran reading him a story trying to ignore her sister and half-brother who were parrying across the floor. 

Arya swung her sword and missed Jon's, instead hitting his hand.  

"Ouch," Jon shouted. His sword flew out of his hand and across the room hitting Sansa in the shoulder and cheek. 

"Owww.." She screamed grabbing her shoulder. 

"That didn't hurt," Arya said to both Jon and Sansa who were clutching their respective injuries.

"Yes, it did!" Sansa yelled back. Arya noticed Jon's hand looked red and a mark was on Sansa's face. _Maybe it does hurt but Sansa is being a baby_. 

Arya marched toward her sister to pick up the fallen sword but Sansa was quicker. 

"I don't think you should play with this inside," she said grabbing the sword and holding it close to her chest. 

"Give it back!" Arya demanded.

"No," Sansa said. 

Arya jumped on her sister trying to free the wooden sword from her arms. Sansa fell backward onto the floor with Arya's weight on her. She attempted to roll away from her sister who stayed on her. Bran thinking the girls were having a wrestling match decided to join in the fun. Arya wondered way Jon did not help her. _He's still mad I unmanned him._ She tried to shoot him a dirty look but was too busy trying to pry her sister's arms apart while fending off Bran who was now on her back. 

"Get off," Sansas yelled.

"Give it back," Arya yelled back. 

All three rolled again closer to the wall where a mirror stood, with Arya now on top of Sansa pulling the sword with all her might. 

"Stop it..." Jon started to shout as he walked toward them to attempt to pull Arya off her sister. 

He approached her on the right.  Bran clung to her left side. 

Arya squirmed, "I want it back!" she demanded. 

Using all the strength she had, Arya gave one last pull on the sword with her left hand as Jon was pulling her off Sansa.  She was able to free it from her sister's grasp just as if she was unsheathing it from a scabbard. Forgetting Bran was behind her too, her elbow went into his eye while the tip of the sword crashed into the mirror that was standing against the wall. The glass cracked, pieces falling to the ground. 

The children stared at the broken mirror in shock until Bran began to cry uncontrollably holding his eye. They began yelling at each other. Sansa blaming Arya, Arya saying Bran shouldn't have been behind her.  Jon telling them to both stop yelling. 

As if on cue, Old Nan returned to the room. Seeing the broken glass, the wooden swords, mushed hair, and a crying Bran, it did not take her long to determine what had happened. 

"Jon ya supposed to make sure the lil ones don't fight," she scolded him. 

Jon shrugged. Arya thought, he had very little ability to make sure they did not fight. 

Old Nan checked Bran's eye which seemed to be a minor injury at most and began to clean up the glass. "Careful don't cut ya'selves," she warned. "What'll ya lady mother say."

"Noooo" all four shouted at once. Arya thought anything would be better than telling their lady Mother. They would all certainly be sent to bed with no dessert and probably no supper. Old Nan stood looking at them for a long moment. 

"Now, ya not to leave this room 'til supper," she said.

"What" they all cried again.

"And,"

"No...please.." Arya started to beg.

"Ah I said...and," she insisted. "And as long as there's to be no more trouble from ya lot. I'm sure ya lady Mother will understand t'was an accident. Do ya understand me, now?"

"Yes," they mumbled. 

"Good," she walked out of the room with the broken glass wrapped in a cloth shutting the door behind her. 

Alone again and now furious with each other, the children sat in silence with Bran's quiet sobs in the background. After a few moments, Sansa went to him to attempt to console the baby with a picture book. She began softly singing the words of the story, a tale of a knight who was hunting a dragon that had stolen a princess. Sansa loved her stories and songs but even at six Arya thought they were stupid.  Jon was pretending to ignore them all. Arya knew he was listening to Sansa sing. He always pretended not to listen to Sansa sing. 

Standing up in the middle of the room, "I don't want to sing songs," she declared. Sansa gave her an annoyed look. 

"Then what shall we do?" she said in a sweet high voice filled with false courtesy. Arya could not tell if her sister was making a jape or not. 

"We should be the knights and hunt dragons."

"And how will we do that?" she asked in the same high voice. Arya narrowed her eyes at Sansa. She did not even glance at Jon. He would not help her in this. _He will never say it but he would rather listen to her songs,_ Arya thought with a tinge of jealousy. She paced across the room several times deep in thought. 

Stopping suddenly, "Ok here is how we are going to do this," she said kneeling in front of her sister and Bran. "We'll each be a knight or lady."

"I'm Jonquil?" Sansa stated. _Now, her sister wanted to play._

Arya rolled her eyes. "Fine"

"And well, Jon'll have to be Florian," she said with a sigh. Jon scowled at that. Arya thought he would rather be Aemon the Dragonknight. 

"And we'll have to get married and have babies," she added. "Jon, you'll have to pretend you are a handsome prince." Arya made gagging sounds. She noticed Jon did not look as if minded this as much as he should. 

"Florian isn't a prince," Arya said to Sansa. 

"It's just pretend, Arya," her sister told her. "I could make him a king if I wanted, too." 

"Sure, ok," Arya decided to let her sister be whoever she wanted to be. "We've got a list of people to kill."

"A list?" Sansa asked confused. "People to kill?"

"I thought we are just hunting dragons?" Jon asked who had risen from the corner he was sat in to join his sisters and Bran in the huddle. 

Baby Bran made noises, "I see...I see.."

"Hmm...no...hunting people," Arya said. "Not really people, our enemies!"

"We have enemies?" asked Jon his eyes raised as he squatted between a kneeling Arya and a seated Sansa.

"Yes," Arya said matter of factly handing the broken wooden sword to Bran who continued to say he could see their enemies. 

"Monsters would be better," Sansa said. "Monster always try to steal the Princess."

"Jonquil isn't a Princess," Arya corrected her sister. 

"She is now. Trapped in a snow castle," Sansa said with her nose in the air. "And after she is saved she becomes a Queen."

Shaking her head, "Whatever," Arya said. "She can be the Princess."

Bran climbed into a chair to stand taller saying, "I see monsters. I see." and pointing the broken sword in different directions. Arya went in one direction then another with Jon following her. She made pretend slashing motions killing a monster each time. Soon Bran was pointing to so many monsters in different corners of the room that Arya and Jon found themselves running in circles. Sansa started laughing at the sight of them. 

"I've escaped," she said running up to an imaginary foe making the same slashing motion Arya made. "This giant is mine." Jon let out a loud laugh when he saw his ever proper sister attempt to slay a giant. Even Arya had to admit it was funny.  

After that, all three were battling their enemies while baby Bran stood sentinel on the chair warning his siblings of oncoming danger. "I see there. I see there." he kept repeating and pointing to more monsters forcing the three to move faster and faster. 

Falling on the floor in the middle of the room in exhaustion, Arya announced they had killed all the monsters. Jon and Sansa sat with her breathing heavily. 

"Now, we can have a big wedding and lots of babies," Sansa said going to pick up a doll on a shelf. "And I can be Queen." Arya made a choking sound as Sansa came back to sit with them. 

"Umm..." Jon said. Before he could say anything more. Old Nan opened the door to the room. 

"I see ya are getting along now," she said.  "What ya wee ones doing?

"We're saving the realm," Arya said proudly. 

Old Nan laughed at Arya. "And how ya be doin' that."

"We're killing all the monsters."

"Bran tells us where they are. And Jon and I kill them." Arya said making slashing motions, cutting the air with her hands. "Sansa helped, too. After she escaped." Old Nan folded her arms nodding at Arya with wide eyes. 

"Then Jon and I are going to get married and have babies," added Sansa. "Because everyone else will be gone." 

Arya noticed Old Nan's eyes get even wider than narrow as she looked at Sansa. She opened her mouth to say something before closing it again. 

"Its just pretend," Sansa said turning towards Jon, who was slouching, she poked him to sit up straight. Scolding him, she said, "You have to pretend to be a handsome prince."

Old Nan turned her attention to Arya with a long hard gaze then again at each of the other three children. Jon pretending to ignore Sansa who had returned to cradling her doll.  Bran perched on a high-backed chair still keeping watch for monsters. 

"That's quite the song my summer children," Old Nan said. "Carry on," she added as she walked out of the room closing the door behind her. 

 


End file.
